Monday, August 1, 2011

Desktop QR Code Reader for Ubuntu

So, for a long time, I wanted something that could go from this:

to this:

And, I was frustrated that no one made it. I would have made it but decoding QR codes is just so darn difficult... that is until ZBar came along with QR Code support. Now, I have a button I can click to move it over. Unfortunately, it isn't /that/ easy. I genned this app up by taking a Gtk demo for making a system tray applet, adding some screen shot capabilities, pumping it into ZBar, then using some of the xosc overlay stuff to draw the outlines. It was pretty straightforward. You can get the code here:

My friend wrote a somewhat similar program, though it's for KDE. To add a menu, you should first create a .desktop file (this is an example from my friend https://sourceforge.net/p/kqrcode/kqrcode/ci/cb09cdb6e108be8896e903f6d7dbebe590137ae1/tree/kqrcode/kqrcode.desktop?force=True), and then add it to makefile to make it install into $prefix/share/applications/. In case of KQRCode, CMake does that, but i don't know what build system you are using.

i could install it downloading the qroverlay_0.2_i386.deb link at https://launchpad.net/~charles-cnlohr/+archive/qroverlay/+packagesinstalled it using the default instalator on ubuntu 11.10 (oneric)

strangely it didn't appear using alt+F2 ... and when i use it on terminal, it says:qroverlay by Charles Lohr - Licensed under either the MIT/x11 or New BSD Licenses. You choose.Simply run this tool, and click on its icon in the system tray. It will highlight allQR Codes. Click again to hide all outlines. Right-click to copy the data to the clipboard